May 11 Council Notes: FIFA Viewing Parties, Zero Waste, Community Safety Awareness Committee

The BC government is providing grants to local governments throughout the province to host FIFA World Cup viewing parties. Langley City received a $40,000 grant from the province, and the City must provide $10,000 as a condition of the grant. Council approved holding 4 viewing parties outside Timms Community Centre. These will be family-friendly parties with food, music, hands-on activities, and community partners that celebrate and showcase the diversity of our community. A Team Canada game and the final game will be two of the dates.

It is event season in Langley City, and one of the action items is to improve how we handle waste at these events. If you've been to previous Community Day events, you might have seen some waste-sorting stations as demonstrations, run by volunteers.

Council adopted a new Zero Waste strategy, which could see this waste-sorting approach rolled out to all community events over time. This year will focus on Community Day and three outdoor movie night events. Based on the learning from these events, the next phase will apply to large events on City land, such as the Arts Alive Festival or Bard in the Valley, potentially in 2027. Future phases could see this rolled out to all outdoor community events based on what we learn in earlier phases.

Me with Volunteers at a Waste Sorting Station at Community Day.

Council also approved an update to the terms of reference for the Crime Prevention Committee, which includes renaming it the Community Safety Awareness Committee to align with the recommendation from the Citizens’ Assembly on Community Safety. The Committee's new mandate includes:

• Advancing knowledge sharing around community safety initiatives and resident engagement
• Participating in the Resilient Neighbourhood Networks program
• Contributing to the Social Streets Program and Village Cafés Series to learn and share information with community members
• Continuing to partner with the RCMP, business community, and residents to promote safety programs such as Block Watch and Business Walks

The committee has also been given a $2,500 annual budget to support their work; any further funding would require council approval.

Council also adopted the 2026 Tax Rate Bylaw. You can learn more about this in a previous post.